Contents:
- Medical Video: Gout Diet Dos & Don'ts
- What is gout?
- What causes gout?
- Why are tomatoes called triggers for gout symptoms?
- So, can gout sufferers eat tomatoes?
Medical Video: Gout Diet Dos & Don'ts
Has there ever been pain or pain in the joints, especially in the joints of the toes, knees and ankles? If so, maybe you experience gout or is often known in Indonesia as gout.
What is gout?
Gout or gout is a disease that attacks the joints that cause pain, redness, and swelling in the affected part of gout. This disease is often experienced by people who are elderly. However, that does not mean that adults cannot experience gout. At least one out of 200 adults is known to have gout or gout. Anyone can experience gout, but indeed men experience it more often than women.
The age group that often experiences gout is 30 to 50 years in men, whereas in women more are found when they have experienced menopause. While groups of teenagers and children are very rarely found complaints or diagnosed with gout.
Symptoms that arise from gout will suddenly appear and cannot be predicted. Pain in the legs, hands, knees, or ankles may appear very quickly and initially occur at night, then it will disappear for 5 to 10 days and return again. Sometimes, gout sufferers also feel fever up to 39 degrees Celsius.
What causes gout?
Gout or gout is actually caused by a buildup of uric acid in the joints which makes the joints inflamed. This accumulation of uric acid results from eating too many foods that contain lots of purines, fatty and oily foods. Foods high in purines will be broken down into uric acid in the body.
Under normal conditions or in the body of a healthy person, uric acid will be released through urine or sometimes through feces. But when the amount of uric acid produced by the body is too much, the uric acid will accumulate and form crystals. These uric acid crystals gather in various joints, including the most common in the joints of the foot. This crystal causes the symptoms of gout to appear.
READ ALSO: List of Foods to Relieve Knee Osteoarthritis
Therefore, gout can be overcome by applying the right diet and choosing the right food and medication from a doctor. For gout which causes moderate and not severe symptoms, it can be overcome only by adjusting your diet and doing the right diet. But for severe symptoms, it takes help to consume drugs that function to relieve symptoms of gout.
The diet that needs to be applied by gout sufferers is a low purine diet, namely a diet consisting of foods that are low in purines and avoid foods that are high in purines, such as meat, innards, sausages, various processed foods, smoked meat, and shellfish. In addition, in purine diets, there are restrictions on the use of oil and fatty foods.
Recently, a statement emerged that tomatoes are bad for gout sufferers, because it causes symptoms of gout to appear, even though tomatoes contain high purines. Is it true? And how can tomatoes cause gout?
READ ALSO: Is it true that eating spinach can increase gout?
Why are tomatoes called triggers for gout symptoms?
Tomatoes, which we know as vegetables or some people consider them as fruit because they have seeds in them, have various health benefits. Tomatoes are famous for vitamin C and the antioxidants they contain. Not only that, tomatoes also contain lycopene which also functions to prevent inflammation in the body.
It has also been proven that tomatoes have low levels of purine, where purines are enemies of gout sufferers. Some studies also show that tomatoes can reduce purine levels in the body of gout sufferers and become one of the recommended foods to consume.
READ ALSO: What Are Antioxidants and Why Are They Important For Our Body?
But, contradicting the results of a recent study, which states that tomatoes actually cause symptoms of gout to appear and aggravate the symptoms. This arises because in the study found 71% of patients with gout from a total of 2051 respondents. Of the total cases of gout it is known that as many as 20% experience gout because it is triggered by tomato consumption. The results of the study reported in the BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders do indeed state that it is not certain what causes tomatoes to be a trigger for gout symptoms.
The researchers from the study also stated that tomatoes are not bad for gout sufferers, because more research states that tomatoes are good for consumption. However, the reason that might cause this is the glutamate content found in tomatoes, which is also widely contained in high purine foods. Apparently, glutamate can help and trigger the synthesis of uric acid in the body, so that it can indirectly increase uric acid levels and cause symptoms.
So, can gout sufferers eat tomatoes?
Indeed, more research and scientific evidence is needed to prove whether tomatoes are one of the foods that gout sufferers should avoid. However, up to now the evidence that tomatoes are consumed by gout sufferers is still more than the opposite. So, don't worry about eating tomatoes if you experience gout. But remember, it's better to eat fresh tomatoes and avoid tomatoes that have been processed into sauces, or in packs.
